


'Til the End of the Line

by sunburst_city



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fullmetal Alchemist, FMA!AU, where Annabeth is Roy and Percy is Riza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 20:19:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7188638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunburst_city/pseuds/sunburst_city
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’d missed eating meals with her lieutenant. It reminded her of her teenage years, living with the Jacksons and studying alchemy under Daedalus, the brilliant recluse who lived in the home below theirs. It brought back memories of days spent pouring over complicated texts, babysitting the younger Jackson son, sparring with Percy inbetween doing household chores, and all-around feeling a sense of belonging and family that she’d never gotten from her own family.</p>
<p>The PJO/FMA!AU literally nobody asked for</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Til the End of the Line

Colonel Annabeth Chase was not having a good day.

With the Homunculi running around, everything in Amestris was going to shit. The riot in Liore had quickly been followed by a number of smaller, similarly bloody incidents all over the country. Outside of Amestris, war was once again threatening to break out against the country of Drachma. With both civil and international unrest, the military had its work cut out for it. As if that wasn’t enough, Annabeth recently found out just how deep the corruption in the military went. Several of her seniors were actually _working_ for the Homunculi. Her lieutenant’s discovery of the _Führer_ _being a Homunculus,_ of all things, was just the icing on the corrupt military cake. And to top it all off, the pounding in her head that had appeared that afternoon still hadn’t gone away.

Needless to say, she’d been downright unpleasant when the doorbell to her apartment rang at 23:08. Her headache became ten times more pronounced when she opened the front door and found her lieutenant standing on her doorstep.

“What are you doing here, Jackson?” Her words came out sharper than she meant them to.

To his credit, First Lieutenant Percy Jackson didn’t even flinch at her tone. Instead, he showed her the bag of takeout and the six-pack of beer he had with him.

“McLean told me you skipped lunch today,” he said, “and knowing you, Sir, you probably forgot to eat dinner as well.”

That would partly explain the pounding in her head. Looking back on it, Annabeth realized she hadn’t eaten since this morning, and even that had barely passed for a meal. Percy Jackson had clearly known her for far too long if he could predict her so well, despite not having been in contact for weeks. _  
_

_‘Still…’_ She scowled at him, crossing her arms. “You shouldn’t be here. Kronos has eyes and ears everywhere.”

“Relax, Sir. I made sure nobody was following me,” Was his reply.

Annabeth took in his appearance. He’d traded the bright blue of his military uniform for muted, casual clothing. He’d also forgone the swords normally resting in scabbards against his lower back, though he probably still had his favorite collapsible _xiphos_ stashed in his pocket. He was never without a blade on his person. On the outside, though, he looked like a regular civilian, which probably made it much easier for him to blend in crowds and shake off anyone trying to follow him.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t still have been tailed on the way here, though. She trusted in his ability, but their enemy wasn’t someone to underestimate. By all means, she should send him home; who knew what Führer Kronos would do if he ever caught wind of Colonel Chase meeting with her team?

But she also knew how stubborn Percy Jackson could be when he set his mind to something. Currently, that something was apparently getting her to eat. She knew that if she didn’t let him in her apartment, he’d stay outside until she relented, and a man standing by her doorstep like a forlorn lover was the complete opposite of covert. She sighed heavily and opened the door wider. “Get your ass in here, then.”

Percy grinned and entered her apartment with a familiarity only the two of them were capable of. Annabeth gave the outside of her apartment one last sweep with her eyes before closing her front door and locking it. Meanwhile, Percy had shrugged off his coat and hung it on the rack before his feet automatically took him to her kitchen. On the way, he tossed her a small prescription bottle from his pocket. She read the label and saw it was the ones she used for migraines, making her roll her eyes fondly. She took a glass from the overhead cupboard, filled it with water, and knocked back two pills.

Meanwhile, Percy had taken two plates from the same cupboard and emptied the takeout he’d brought onto them. He then placed one of the plates on top of the transmutation circle on the counter next to the stove. He turned to her, tilting his head towards the plate. “Do you mind?”

Annabeth finished her water, came forward, and pressed her fingers against the transmutation circle. The circle glowed, and the _lo mien_ and egg rolls on the plates were instantly reheated.

Percy smirked lightly as they repeated the process with the second plate in his hand. “Still the coolest thing ever.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes again. “Nearly fifty transmutation circles drawn in my apartment, some of them complex enough to be act as a 24-hour security system, and your favorite is the one that reheats food.”

“I have my priorities sorted out, Sir.”

As he grabbed utensils for them, Annabeth cleared her small dining table of the papers she’d been looking over before her lieutenant arrived. She took the now-warm takeout and placed them on of the table. Percy followed her to the table, and together, they dug into their modest dinner, making small talk about things they’d missed out on while they’d been apart.

If she were to be honest, she’d missed this: eating meals with her lieutenant. It reminded her of her teenage years, living with the Jacksons and studying alchemy under Daedalus, the brilliant recluse who lived in the home below theirs. It brought back memories of days spent pouring over complicated texts, babysitting the younger Jackson son, sparring with Percy inbetween doing household chores, and all-around feeling a sense of belonging and family that she’d never gotten from her own family.

The nostalgia spiked even more when Percy stood up after they’d finished eating, wordlessly took her plate, and headed for her sink to wash the dishes, completing the chore that had unfailingly fallen onto him since he was a little boy.

Although, some things _were_ different, Annabeth mused as she watched him push the long sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows and expose the transmutation circle tattooed on his forearm. The tattoo glowed a bright blue before the flow and pressure of the running water from the faucet bent to his will, helping him wash the dishes more efficiently.

Annabeth shook her head at the ease with which he performed water alchemy. “You know, I still don’t understand why you never tried to get your State Alchemist title, Jackson.”

Percy shrugged, not bothering to turn around. “Not all of us can be geniuses like you, Sir.” He replied, to which Annabeth snorted. He might be subpar when it came to the research and studying that came with practising alchemy; but she didn’t know anyone who had an affinity for water alchemy like he did. Not even General Poseidon Jackson could wield the element as well as his son did.

Deciding that she’d already spent far too much time on the dining table tonight, Annabeth grabbed her papers and a bottle of beer and relocated to the sofa, hoping that a change of scenery would give her better insight.

As a State Alchemist and the student of Daedalus, she’d done more than her fair share of research in her short life. The amount of research she’d done in the past two months, though, was enough to drive even her mentor crazy, and her mentor had been crazy enough to bind his own soul to a suit of automail armor.

She’d combed through the military archives and Daedalus’ personal, expansive library of alchemic texts twice; but she’d barely gotten a page’s worth of information on Homunculi. All the texts she’d read said the original Homunculus was most likely created by a man only known as Hades, but that had been hundreds of years ago, back when the city of Xerxes had still existed. Other than that, she had nothing. Nothing on how to destroy them completely, nothing on how to prevent someone from using a Philosopher’s Stone to bring them back. They needed a plan against the Homunculi and the bitch they called Mother if Amestris wanted even a chance at surviving through this hell. And with majority of the higher-ups either corrupt or too far up in their own asses to admit something was wrong, it was up to Annabeth and her team to do something.

Annabeth frowned at that thought. Her team wasn’t exactly in the best position right now. All of them were being monitored and, as of three weeks ago, scattered across different parts of Amestris. 2nd Lieutenant Clarisse La Rue was flung off to South City, while Sergeants Travis and Connor Stoll were reassigned to Annabeth’s old station in East City. 2nd Lieutenant Thalia Grace had been in hiding ever since she’d been framed for murder five months ago. 

Though, none of them really had it as bad as her right-hand man did. Percy had been stationed in Fort Briggs for a while until the Homunculi realized he was sabotaging their operations in North City. Annabeth couldn’t help but smirk as she remembered that; really, whose bright idea was it to place a loose cannon who was unrivalled at water alchemy in a place full of _snow?_  Now, though, Percy was in the most danger out of everyone on her team. After Fort Briggs, he had been reassigned as the Fuhrer’s personal bodyguard, though Kronos didn’t really need one, seeing as he was a Homunculus himself.

And while her team had more or less been taken hostage, Annabeth had been given two new cadets as her direct subordinates. She knew she could trust McLean and Valdez; but just those two wouldn’t be enough. She needed her entire team for any plan to have even the slightest chance of working.

Eventually, Percy wandered over to the couch once he was done with the dishes. He plopped next to her with a beer of his own. “What are those?” He asked, tilting his chin towards the papers in her hand.

“Plans,” was all she said; but she knew she didn’t need to elaborate for her lieutenant to understand.

At that, he turned uncharacteristically somber.  “It’s really happening, then?”

The Promised Day, the day when Gaea, the bitch the Homunculi called Mother, would wipe out all of Amestris to create a Philosopher’s Stone powerful enough to render her unbeatable. That was why Annabeth was working ten times as hard; they were running against time.

Annabeth nodded, sighing heavily as she put the papers down. “You should probably get Sally out of Central City while you can.” She said. Things were going to get really ugly very quickly in the city, and she didn’t want anything happening to Percy’s mother.

“Already did.” Percy said, leaning back against the sofa. “I gave her and Paul an early wedding gift and sent them off on a vacation in South City. Mom says thank you, by the way. I told her the vacation was from both of us.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes, making a mental note to pay for half of that vacation once everything died down. “And Tyson?”

At first, she hadn’t been fond of Percy’s younger brother, given her own experience with her step-brothers. The youngest Jackson had eventually wormed his way into her heart like the rest of his family had. Now, she couldn’t bear the thought of him in danger.

“With dad.” He said, “No place safer, really. How about Dr. Chase?”

“He’s in North City,” Annabeth said with a frown. “It’s not my ideal place for him to be, what with the Homunculi running things there; but Reyna called him in to help Fort Briggs strategize against Drachma.”

“Well, you can’t ignore summons from the Queen.” He commented, calling General Ramirez-Arellano by her moniker. 

“I hope they’re doing alright, what with quelling a war between Amestris and Drachma while keeping an eye on the Homunculi’s movements in North City.”

“They’ll be fine. The Queen could just stare the head of the Drachma military down and he’d probably cower in fear. She’s plenty intimidating, after all, almost as intimidating as you, Sir. The amount of grown men I’ve seen you two make cry is astounding.”

She sent him a sly glance. “Have I made you cry, Lieutenant?”

“Of course. Are you aware how terrifying you were when you were twelve? I nearly wet my pants the first time we met.”

“I wasn’t that bad.”

“You glared at me and told me, none too kindly might I add, to wipe the drool from my face. No wonder old man Daedalus took you in as his protege; he must’ve been too afraid you would set his house on fire.”

She scowled at him. “Bastard, that was _one time_.”

Percy shot her a small smirk.

This was the part of their relationship she missed most: the witty, sarcastic banter that Percy could dish out. Even back when he was her right-hand man, they couldn’t have this type of exchange when they were in the office. At work, it didn’t matter that they’ve known each other for nearly fifteen years, or that she’d basically been a permanent fixture to his family for almost as long. At work, she was his superior and he was her subordinate, and they were expected to act accordingly.

Speaking of subordinates…

“Have you gotten to speak with Nico lately?” She asked, getting back to work. When the Promised Day would go down, it was Nico di Angelo who would be in the center of it all.

Percy heaved a sigh, setting his empty beer bottle down. “No, not since they dropped by Fort Briggs to talk to Reyna while I was still stationed there. You know how he is.”

Well, no, not really. The only one in the military who could get any semblance of a straight answer from Nico di Angelo when he had first joined was Percy, which had made him and his younger sister Annabeth’s wards by default. While he wasn’t as bad now as he’d been back when they first met, he was still way too moody and flighty for a fifteen-year-old. Then again, she couldn’t blame him; the kid had to grow up quickly after that disastrous attempt at bringing his older sister back to life.

No matter what people said about the taboos of human transmutation, though, Annabeth knew Nico was a good kid, and his heart was always in the right place. Still, Amestris’ youngest State Alchemist had a sharp tongue and less-than-stellar social skills that tended to rub people the wrong way. His younger sister, Hazel, was infinitely much easier to get along with.

“Hazel contacted me the other day, though.” Percy continued. “She said they were stopping by Resembool for a bit before heading off to meet up with Frank and some of their other comrades.”

Despite the severity of the overall situation, Annabeth’s mouth curled up in a small smile at the mention of the man from Xing. “I take it Frank and Hazel have finally gotten their act together?”

"Yeah.” Percy replied with a fond smile. “Finally. Anyway, with all the traveling, Hazel said they might not make it to Central before the Promised Day, but she promised they’d be here on the day itself.”

Annabeth sighed. “There’s still so much to do before then.” If the di Angelo-Levesque siblings were right, then the Promised Day was only a week away. “Dammit, this would be so much easier if the higher ups weren’t so corrupt.” She grumbled.

The military was basically a farce now. Apart from Kronos, they weren’t sure who among the higher ups was working for the Homunculi.

“At least we know we can count on your dad and his associates.” She slouched back into the couch and stared at the ceiling. “I just hope that my mother—”

She didn’t finish her sentence, unable to even think about the possibility that her mother was one of the officials backing Gaea and the Homunculi.

“We don’t even know who she is.” She eventually said.

“She isn’t corrupt; that’s for sure.” Percy denied vehemently, though they both knew his words were empty words.

Though she grew to fiercely love her job as protector of Amestris, the initial reason why she’d joined the military was merely to find her mother, whom she knew from stories from her father was a high-profile official in the military.

She sat up wearily. “You don’t know that, Lieutenant.”

“Hey,” he said. He gently caught her wrist, an action that would’ve caused Annabeth to deck him if he’d done it in the office and not in the confines of her apartment. “We’ll find your mom.”

At this point, she wasn’t even sure if that was still possible. They’d been at it for years, and the only lead they’d gotten was a classified file called PARTHENOS. They didn’t even know her name.

“And we’ll get this bastard Kronos and the rest of the Homunculi,“ Percy continued, ” _And_ we’ll stop Gaea.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because you’re Colonel Annabeth Chase, Sir. Your plans never fail.”

She rolled her eyes at that, though she couldn’t help but feel reassured at his confidence in her abilities. She pulled her wrist from his grasp. “This one is much more risky, though. We’re essentially planning a _coup_ , Lieutenant.”  
“You still have our connections?”

Annabeth nodded. In a manner characteristic of her, she’d turned her weakness into one of their strengths. Her team might be scattered across the country; but that essentially gave them a wider reach. Valdez was low-key coordinating with La Rue in acquiring artillery while McLean gathered intel on the movements of the higher-ups, and the Stoll brothers were keeping everyone in contact with each other while trying to reach out to Thalia who was, to Annabeth’s last knowledge, taking refuge somewhere in Xing. Even Reyna was going to lend her power.

“Still, even with our preparations, there is a high possibility that a lot of people will die.” She admitted.

“More people will die if we don’t do anything.”

Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, she added, “ _We_ might die.”

At this, Percy looked down, and Annabeth instantly knew he was thinking of his family, of never seeing his mother again or tucking his brother in bed for the night. When he looked up, his face was set in grim determination. “Then we die knowing we did our damnedest to protect the country.”

It still amazed her sometimes, the sheer amount of noble courage he displayed. Multiple times in the past, he’d gone on about how amazing her drive to succeed was. She suspected he never knew just how much strength she derived from his courage.

Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, “You’ll stay with me?”

“After all these years, you’re still asking me that?” Percy said, huffing a short laugh. Then, his mouth dropped into a serious line, and he set his gaze on her, green eyes intent and unwavering. “I’d follow you into the very depths of hell if I needed to.“

And _there,_  there was the boy she’d met when she was twelve years old, the same determined, loyal man who joined the military, went to war, and rose through the ranks with her, always supporting her and watching her back, even when she didn’t want it.

For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. Gods knew they’d been dancing around this topic – this chemistry between them that had nothing to do with alchemy and everything to do with _them_ – for years now. While she was pretty sure she couldn’t live without Percy Jackson (annoying as he may sometimes be), she wasn’t entirely sure she was ready to accept that she wanted to live with him in that way for the rest of her life, either.

She wasn’t sure exactly what caused her to snap out of it. All she knew was, one moment, she and Percy were both leaning in, and the next, she was jerking her head away.

She cleared her throat. “You’d better get going.” It was late, and he still had to report to Kronos first thing tomorrow morning.

Thankfully, he didn’t press the incident. Instead, he nodded, got up, and took his coat from rack. Annabeth opened her front door and patiently waited for him to don his coat before he left.

As he was halfway out the door, he turned and shot a small smile at her. “Goodnight, Sir.”

_Stay safe,_ his eyes said.

“Goodnight, Jackson.” She intoned quietly.

She could only hope he saw the same thing in her eyes.


End file.
